National Parked FAQ

The idea for it was first come up with in mid 2006, and actual development started in late 2006. Over 150 days were spent in the parks between September of 2006 and October of 2007 gathering information and photos for the site. The site officially opened on January 1, 2008.

This site is intended to serve all facets of a national park vacation. Its information is here to help plan every part of the trip. However, it is also meant to be a hub for memories and interaction AFTER the trip. Any registered user may participate in the discussions on our forums, and they may upload their own pictures of the parks in the user sections of our Photo Gallery. In this way you can share with others the excitement of a trip to America's best places.

Yes. We intend to provide all of the information and interactive features free of charge. However, the cost to host, maintain and improve the site with future visits is considerable. To offset this, we have relationships with hotel chains, Expedia, and Amazon. By clicking through this site when you need these services, you help to ensure this site's survival, and it never adds anything to your cost.

Each park generally has each of the sections listed below. However, there are many exceptions. For example, there are no roads in Lake Clark National Park, so that section is missing. Likewise, there are no campgrounds in some parks, such as Carlsbad Caverns National Park, so the camping section is absent. Also, some parks will have additional sections, such as Yellowstone National Park, which has an extensive section on the thermal areas.

The Overview section is the home, or index page, of each park listing. It is headed by a map displaying the park's location. It is followed by a chart with basic facts. Nearest city is the closest town to the park - this can be somewhat subjective in very large or remote parks. "Last Site Visit" is the last time that we visited. The "Creation Date" is the time the park was either authorized or created. This can vary somewhat from source to source, but we take the dates from the National Park Service's official timeline. Annual visitation shows the last full year's official total, followed by a link to view all-time statistics. The rest are self-explanatory. Below the facts chart are current weather conditions for either the park itself or a nearby town. Next comes a list of major steps in the park's evolution. Last is the official address and contact phone numbers for the park.

FAQ is a widely used acronym on the internet, standing for Frequently Asked Questions. On this site, it gives a quick rundown of basic travel questions about the park, and some specific questions about its features.

This section lists all formal campgrounds in the park. The large majority are operated by the National Park Service; it is noted in the listing if they are private and/or operated by park concessioners. Images of each campground are provided when we have personally been there to obtain them. Third party images are never used on this site.

This section lists first any official in-park lodging provided by concessioners. Following that is a search provided by Expedia, with the best search locations shown. After this are specific hotel listings, complete with links to directly to the property. We include distances to park entrance and directions via Google for all listings. All of the chain hotels guarantee this link to have the lowest rates available online. We only list hotels that have online booking functionality, as this is generally the cheapest and easiest way.

This section starts with quick general directions to the park from various major points. It goes on to list the nearest airports. Following this are searches provided by Expedia for both airlines and car rental companies. The best airport locations, complete with airport code, are given next to it. At the bottom of the page are links to the original park map, both in their original Adobe Acrobat PDF files, and an easy to use, and generally smaller, JPEG conversion.

This link leads to our discussion forums, specifically to the section for the park in question. This is the place to go for interaction with site staff and other users about the park. Don't be afraid to start a discussion! The site is monitored daily by staff.

This section is one of our favorites. It starts with a map of the park, with the sections we cover in-depth highlighted. On the pages beyond are meticulous mile-by-mile logs of the roads, complete with images and descriptions. Note that odometers can actually vary quite significantly from one car to another, so the numbers may not match your travels exactly, but they certainly give you a good idea of the road layout, as well as distances between certain points.

This section simply provides a list of some of the more popular hikes in the park, complete with distances, difficulties, and locations. A description is given as well, and images(s) are normally provided for all hikes we have undertaken ourselves.

The Site Photo Gallery link leads to the section of our Photo Gallery for the park in question. These images are always taken by us, no third party images are used anywhere on the site, except in the case of a current news event on the front page. The User Photo Gallery is the section where our site members may upload their own photos of the park.

This is the page dedicated to the best books and other media available for the park, presented in the form of an easy-to-use Amazon Widget. This saves you from searching the labyrinth of Amazon's millions of offerrings, and shows you the most relevant guidebooks and other media for the park. We personally own many of these books.